Sermon -- 4th Sunday in Advent

HEBREWS 10:5-10

HE GIVES HIS BODY TO SANCTIFY YOU.

In the name + of Jesus.

     Quiz question: What was the first shedding of blood in the Bible?  If you are thinking of Cain’s murder of Abel, you are close, but off by one chapter.  Right after the fall into sin, we read that “the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).  Fig leaves were not a permanent solution.  So, the Lord put to death animals for them.  They shed their blood so that Adam and Eve could be clothed in their skins and have their shame covered.  It foreshadowed what Jesus would later do—shed his blood so that he would cover sin with his righteousness.  Jesus would give his body to sanctify you.

     The second shedding of blood mentioned in the Bible is for worship.  We never hear of any instructions, but God must have given a command about proper worship.  Abel shed the blood of an animal for an offering.  Abel honored the principle which continued throughout the worship conducted by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).  It was always understood by the patriarchs that a body would be slain and blood would be shed.  A sacrificial death was essential to the worship of God—a substitute given on behalf of the sinner.  It proclaimed what the Lord would eventually do for all sinners: “This one dies for me.”

     When the Lord gave details about worship through Moses, he again gave direction for blood sacrifices.  The bodies of bulls, rams, goats, and sheep would be consumed by fire.  The blood of beasts would atone for the sins of the people with whole burnt offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings, and so forth.  Every day, morning and evening sacrifices would be offered.  The animal’s blood would be spilled at the altar.  The animal’s body would be turned to smoke from the altar.  The smoke was a continual sign that the Lord accepted the sacrifices and did not count the people’s sins against them. 

     The offerings needed to be repeated daily, monthly, annually—for centuries.  No matter how much blood was spilled, no matter how many animals were slain, they did not take away the sins of the people.  The writer of the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 where King David—one thousand years before Jesus—acknowledged that these offerings were not the answer.  “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, …in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure” (Hebrews 10:5; Psalm 40:6).  How could God be pleased with offerings that do not remove sin?  It was never the bare act of slaughtering a ram that forgave sins.  People were saved by faith in God’s promises.  God attached his promises to the sacrifices.  Only faith made their worship of any benefit.  But every sacrifice confessed the promises.  Every sacrifice pointed to what the Savior would finally do.  Abel, Noah, Abraham, and centuries of Israel’s priests made the same confession: The Savior would make the one, perfect sacrifice that would make the full payment for sins, once and for all.  He would give his body to sanctify you.

     “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, … ‘a body have you prepared for me’” (Hebrews 10:5).  It is not the sacrifice of a bull, a goat, or a ram that serves as a substitute for mankind.  It is not even another man who can stand in for all mankind.  It is God who comes for all mankind.  But to be a true substitute for mankind, God had to become a man.  So, a body was prepared for him, as we heard in our Gospel lesson.  The Holy Spirit implanted our Lord in the womb of the blessed Virgin.  He was conceived and went through nine months of gestation.  He was born, grew up, and presented his body as the sacrifice which once and for all made the payment for the sins of the world.  It is not a lamb, but the Lamb of God, which was slain for sinners.  He gives his body to sanctify you.

     “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, … ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (Hebrews 10:5,7).  Jesus came to do God’s will in two ways.  First, this one lived for you.  He became a man to submit to the Commandments that we must keep.  He had to do this because we have not.

     Our confession is correct: We are by nature sinful.  We cannot turn that off.  It makes itself evident in our thoughts, words, and actions.  We know what God expects of us, and we know that God’s standards are good.  Nothing is ever gained by jealousy, anger, sarcasm, obscenity, adultery, name-calling, or cruelty.  These things are destructive for you and for others.  Yet, the devil convinces us that we benefit from embracing them.  Our thoughts scheme evil against others.  Our words cut people down.  We act to get praise from others, and we get upset when we don’t get it.  We are guilty of the evil God has told us not to do.  And so, we have offended God and hurt our neighbor.  We have failed to do the good God has commanded.  And so, we have grieved God and proved unhelpful to our neighbor.  This is nothing to boast about, much less trying to convince God that we have been good.

     “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, … ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:5,7).  Jesus lived for you.  Here is a man who did all that God commands, and he delighted in doing it!  For it is not the bare act of obedience which pleases God, but the heart and will of the person must be pure to please God.  The devil tempted Jesus to think that abusing his divine power would serve him well.  Jesus despised self-promotion and self-glorification.  The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.  Miraculous healings were one way Jesus served others, but far better were the teaching and preaching of Jesus.  He preached what Mary sang about.  He told us that we ought not exalt ourselves before God, as if we are saved by impressing him.  Even so, we are not saved by our humility.  We humble ourselves because we are sinners.  Jesus, however, saved us by humbly obeying every word of God.  We hunger and thirst for righteousness which only Jesus has.  And Jesus is pleased to fill us with good things—his own righteousness.  The holy life Jesus lived he lived for you.  And through baptism, he has covered over your shame with his innocence just as he covered Adam and Eve with the skins of animals.  He gives his body to sanctify you. 

     “When Christ came into the world, he said, … ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:5,7)–not only in his life, but also in his death.  Jesus bore in his body the guilt of all your sins, and then he made his life a sin offering for you.  The body that was prepared for Jesus was destined for the cross.  There he made the one sacrifice which would satisfy God’s wrath and remove God’s curse.  This one dies for you.  His blood was spilled at the cross.  His body was consumed by God’s fiery wrath.  His holy, precious blood pays for your guilt.  His innocent sufferings and death secure your pardon and peace.  Behold, he has done God’s will!  He lived in innocence for you.  He died accursed for you.  He gives his body to sanctify you.

     “When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), then he added, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will.’  He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:8-10).  By doing away with the sacrifices, Jesus relieves you of doubts that you have done enough for God’s salvation.  He takes away the fear of wondering if you ever could do enough.  Salvation does not come by making deals with God or by promising God that you will perform some heroic act for him.  You can’t buy God’s grace; it must be given for free.  And it is!  We do not come to church to do a favor for God.  Rather, we come so that God can deliver his good gifts to us.  It is God’s will that Jesus would do all the work to save you.  “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).  In Christ, you have been sanctified, that is, you have been set apart as his saints.   

     He gives his body to sanctify you.  The Lord took on a human body in order to exalt our humanity.  Your body is God’s creation.  It is a precious gift.  But because of sin, our bodies grow weak, sick, and will die.  Jesus has corrected that.  Jesus united himself to you by taking on a body.  He gave his body into death to pay for sins.  He had his body placed in a grave in order to burst forth from it.  Jesus rose from the dead with a body that is glorified and will never die again.  Jesus has prepared such a body for you.  These bodies will die and decay.  But they will burst forth from the grave at the command of our Lord.  And just like Jesus’ risen body, your body will be exalted, glorified, and perfected.  Every problem you suffer with your body now is the result of sin.  But Jesus has atoned for your sin, and he will restore your body and exalt you to what God had intended you to be.  He gives his body to sanctify you.

     Jesus became your body and blood Savior to serve you in yet another way.  He does not summon us like Abel to sacrifice the body of a lamb on an altar or to shed its blood.  Instead, it is the Lord who gives his body and blood for you.  Like Abel, we are saved by faith in a promise.  For Abel, God attached his promise to a sacrifice.  But the Lord has put aside the first covenant to establish a new covenant.  Now he attaches his promise to the word and the sacraments.  We still have an altar, and there is still body and blood on it.  But the sacrament is not what you do for God.  It is what God gives to you.  The body which has borne your sins is here for you.  The blood which was shed to atone for guilt is here for you.  The Savior who has overcome death is delivered to you. 

     Here, God delivers to you the gifts which take away sin, which strengthen faith, and which overcome death.  Here, you get to feast upon the living body and blood of Jesus by which you are sanctified and sustained in God’s kingdom.  He gives his body to sanctify you—not figuratively, but truly.  Your sins are not figurative, so neither is Jesus’ forgiveness.  It is the body and blood of Jesus Christ which saves, and here he gives it to you.  Jesus gives his body and blood in a manner that you can taste, smell, touch, and consume for your highest good.  Here, the holy things are given to the holy ones.  Here, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied.  Here, the humble are exalted.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.